It's a wrap for Season 1 of Alice. I loved Linda Lavin in Barney Miller; I loved her as a co-host with Mike Douglas earlier this 1977 month; I, of course, loved her in Alice, and I love her in this ...
I've kind of kept tabs on her ever since I heard she had married a fella and lived in Wilmington, North Carolina, about the same time that my wife and I married and lived in Cary. Linda Lavin and her husband opened and ran a theater in Wilmington for a while. She and her husband are now back in New York City, and their Wilmington theater has turned into one of those axe-throwing bars--this one called "Axes and Allies," which is pretty clever.
Wikipedia says she does a lot of teaching. I'll bet Linda Lavin is an excellent teacher, too.
She was great on Barney Miller.
ReplyDeleteTurning to basketball, Lansing Everett survived Birmingham Bishop Rice's buzzer-beating half-court shot to force overtime and won Michigan Class A boys' basketball championship in March 1977. Everett's star center is a pretty darned poised and charming 17-year-old.
ReplyDeleteOn March 19, 1977, in College Park, Maryland, the University of Kentucky basketball team was beaten in the final of the NCAA East Regional by the University of North Carolina. Kentucky entered the game ranked number 3 in the AP poll, while North Carolina was number 5.
DeleteUNC jumped all over Kentucky in the first half, and led 53 to 41 at halftime. In the second half. Kentucky launched a torrid comeback in the second half, but UNC held them off with the Four Corners. Check out these stats:
DeleteKENTUCKY:
28-61 from the field (45.9 percent)
16-18 from the line (88.9 percent)
72 points, 27 rebounds, 11 turnovers
NORTH CAROLINA:
23-38 from the field (60.5 percent)
33-36 from the line (91.7 percent)
79 points, 26 rebounds, 8 turnovers
I was devastated by this loss. I had to wait 18 years for a rematch, and then I was devastated again.
The only bright spot for Kentucky fans is that almost the whole team is coming back for the 1977-78 season. But Larry Johnson, their excellent point guard, is graduating. Who will take his place?
DeleteI watched that UK-UNC game again last week, and it was excruciating. That Jack Givens can really, really shoot, though.
DeleteThis week, I'm working to the national semifinals, which were played March 26 in Atlanta. First up on that Saturday afternoon we have Dick Enberg and Billy Packer on the NBC microphone for Marquette vs. UNC-Charlotte. Enberg and Packer are so excellent; I can't help but think they could take it to a whole other level, though, with just one more voice in their booth.
ReplyDeleteMarquette has two free throws to put the game probably out of reach but makes only the second. It's 49-47, Warriors, and the 49ers race the ball past halfcourt. Charlotte coach Lee Rose (of Lexington) wants a timeout with 10 seconds to play and the chance to tie ...
The fans behind the Marquette bench are apparently so loud that Al McGuire has brought his team into a huddle at the court's center circle. Assistant coach Rick Majerus goes over some play mechanics and then cedes the floor to McGuire, who appears to be detailing how and when to call a timeout if the need arises.
ReplyDeleteOut of the timeout, the 49ers get the ball into the hands of their center, Cedric Maxwell, on the left wing. "Cornbread" dribbles to the center of the floor, splits two defenders at the free-throw line and lofts a beautiful jumpshot that slithers through for a 49-49 tie! Marquette gets its timeout with 3 seconds to play ...
ReplyDeleteGood job, Lee Rose!
DeleteAnd then Butch Lee throws a full-court pass toward Marquette's center Jerome Whitehead. The first player with his hands on the ball is UNCC's Cornbread Maxwell, but Whitehead collects the ricochet and then leaps toward the hoop. (Packer says it looks like the Soviet Union's disputed, game-winning play in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.) Under a clock superimposed on the screen ticking away the last seconds, Whitehead lays the ball in the hoop. It bangs around the rim and finally through! Enberg is quick to note that NBC's on-screen clock, and immediately both benches and everyone on the floor pack around the scorer's table as the officials confer. Whitehead's shot stands! Marquette advances.
ReplyDeleteGood job, Al McGuire!
DeleteEnberg noted that the on-screen clock is not official. That's what I meant to say.
DeleteGordon S. White Jr. in The New York Times on today 1977:
ReplyDeleteAl McGuire, the fiery and eccentric 48‐year‐old coach of Marquette basketball, will be retiring after the title game —win or lose. He is going to settle down to the calm life of a corporate executive in the “establishment,” as his wife, Pat, calls it. But McGuire was not calm for a few seconds today when there was doubt that the Warriors would be awarded that winning basket.
McGuire jumped to his feet before 16,986 screaming fans because the officials did not signal “good basket.” Instead, Paul Galvin, one of those two officials, went to the scorer's table where he asked the timekeeper, Larry Carter, if the shot had gone up before the buzzer. Carter said it had, the decision was awarded to Marquette and the Warriors had knocked out the surprise team of the tournament. ...
No one from Charlotte argued with the call, which was proven correct by a National Broadcasting Company television replay time and again. Lew Massey, one of the U.N.C.C. players, said: “I thought it was a good call. If you judge by the horn it was good.”
Maxwell said, “It was good.”
In the second semifinal on March 26, UNC trailed UNLV by as many as 10 points in the first half, went into the four corners before halftime and closed within 49-43 and then returned to the four corners with almost 16 minutes to play and won, 84-83. The Tar Heels made 18 of 28 free throws; the Runnin' Rebels, one of five.
ReplyDeleteBrutal.
I remember deliberately skipping the Final Four games in 1977 because I was so angry about the East Regional Final.
DeleteThere's 1:56 to play Monday, March 28, in Atlanta, and, thankfully, Marquette has maintained the lead throughout the second half of this very close national final. North Carolina has not gone into the four corners, and the Warriors' Jerome Whitehead has two free throws with a 51-49 advantage ...
ReplyDeleteGood and good--clutch! Whitehead was only about a break-even free-throw shooter on the season, Curt Gowdy tells us, but he's four for four tonight.
DeleteBy the way, it's Gowdy and Enberg on the game for NBC tonight.
ReplyDeleteHis team down four points, UNC's Mike O'Koren takes a swipe at the ball in the hands of Marquette's Bernard Toone; instead, he claws across Toone's face and is whistled for a non-shooting foul. Toone apparently says something untoward, and McGuire and several of the Marquette bench join Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge at the scorer's table to debate the officials' decision.
ReplyDeleteThe result is, one, Toone goes to one end to attempt one-plus-one free throws with no other players stationed along the lane and misses the front end; two, Walter Davis goes to the other end to attempt two free throws after a technical foul is called on Marquette's bench and makes both, and, three, North Carolina will retain possession, now trailing by ony 53-51 with about a minute and a half to play.
No! Enberg and Gowdy were confused. Instead, sideline-reporter Packer informs us, it wasn't a technical on the McGuires; it was a flagrant on testy Toone and the O'Koren reach-in whistle. That leads to a center-court jump, as opposed to automatic possession to UNC.
ReplyDeleteMarquette gets the ball, and eventually North Carolina fouls with 1:29 to go. Now we have the Warriors' Jim Boylan headed to the free-throw line for one-plus-one ...
ReplyDeleteBoylan, who has made 43 of 47 free throws this season, hits both of these shots, and Marquette is back up by four points.
DeleteNorth Carolina won the NCAA championship in 1957. This is the Tar Heels' fifth Final Four appearance since.
ReplyDeleteThis is Marquette's second Final Four appearance. The Warriors also advanced in 1974.
Gowdy says that McGuire says he will stay away from Marquette home games for one full year upon retiring after this game and then become "the biggest Marquette fan in the world." Solid plan.
ReplyDeleteWith affection, Gowdy says McGuire was one of the dirtiest players he ever saw play in the NBA. "He had to be; he didn't have enough talent. Bob Cousy told me once, 'The man beat me black and blue out there, but I didn't have many points.'"
ReplyDeleteEnberg: "As one reporter put it, 'He's the kind of man who would steal your wallet and then turn around and give it to you as if to say, "Be careful."'"
ReplyDeleteFinal: Marquette 67, North Carolina 59. McGuire remains on his team's bench, crying. Dean Smith runs from his own bench to congratulate McGuire. The end.
ReplyDeleteI was so, so happy about this result.
DeleteNow here's an NCAA-produced film about the tournament, with the opening shots of narrator Bill Flemming filmed from the floor of The Omni hours after the final.
ReplyDeleteI really like that Bill Flemming.
Production of this film was sponsored by the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
ReplyDeleteThis tournament was the first in 11 years to not include UCLA among the Final Four. Idaho State upset UCLA in the second round, and UNLV won the West Regional in Provo, Utah.
ReplyDeleteMichigan entered the tournament as the nation's top-ranked team, but the Wolverines lost to North Carolina-Charlotte in the Mideast Regional final in Lexington.
ReplyDeleteCool to see Lee Rose of Lexington clipping down the net in Lexington.
DeleteNorth Carolina played the tournament without its starting center and a 1976 Olympian, Tom LaGarde. Then it won the East Regional final over Kentucky with the four corners being directed by its backup point guard, senior John Kuester, after All-American Phil Ford picked up his fourth foul.
ReplyDeleteMarquette's route to the Final Four was via the Midwest Regional in Oklahoma City, through Wake Forest in the final. Marquette, an independent, was touch and go for an invitation to the NCAA tournament after going 20-7 during the regular season, including only 5-4 in February and then a season-closing loss at Michigan. McGuire tells Flemming he was already planning a vacation for him and his wife.
ReplyDeleteI forgot all about the play Enberg wrote about McGuire.
ReplyDeleteTom Watson wins the 1977 Masters.
ReplyDelete